The 2025 Major League Soccer (MLS) regular season officially gets underway on Saturday, with Inter Miami welcoming New York City FC to Chase Stadium.
While the Herons set an MLS-record for points in 2024 (74), they were eliminated in the opening round of the playoffs by Atlanta United (two games to one), with the Pigeons being knocked out in round two by the New York Red Bulls, 2-0.
Match preview
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After a bitter end to the 2024 MLS campaign, the stakes are even higher for Inter Miami heading into the 2025 regular season, where they are once again the team to beat.
The reigning Supporters' Shield winners, littered with veteran talent across the board, have turned to Javier Mascherano to try and do with his predecessor Tata Martino could not, guide this team to an MLS Cup.
While they have yet to win an MLS playoff round, Miami were by far the best team in the 2024 regular season, earning 40 more points than they had at the end of the 2023 campaign.
Their 22 victories in the regular season last year were just one fewer than they had accumulated in their previous two regular-season campaigns combined.
Miami won 11 times at home in the last regular-season, more than any side in the Eastern Conference, with five more victories than they had at Chase Stadium the year before that.
Down but never out was a big part of their record 2024 regular season as they accumulated 31 points from a losing position while only suffering two defeats when scoring first, both of which were in the playoffs versus Atlanta.
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The 2024 MLS campaign began about as poorly as New York City could have hoped, but to their credit, they eventually got back on track in time to return to the post-season.
While they lost four of their first five domestic affairs last year, the Boys in Blue finished the regular season strong, winning three of their final four league contests before surprising FC Cincinnati in the opening round of the playoffs.
A return to the post-season, however, was not enough for Nick Cushing to keep his job, with Pascal Jansen hired to take his place and try to maximise a team loaded with high-priced talent, many of whom lacked playing time under Cushing.
New York City won just four games away from home in this competition last year, which was still a lot better than in 2023 when they claimed one victory as the visitors all season.
The Pigeons have lost their regular-season opener on five consecutive occasions and have not won their first match of an MLS campaign since 2018 (2-0 over Sporting Kansas City).
Few sides were able to avoid defeat when facing Miami in the 2024 regular season, but NYCFC earned two draws versus the Herons last year, and they have points in five of their six matches played against them as the visiting team.
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Team News
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Miami signed Fafa Picault and Telasco Segovia ahead of this season and also added Tadeo Allende on loan from Celta Vigo in La Liga.
Their biggest departure was Leonardo Campana, who was traded to the New England Revolution, while they declined the option of Matias Rojas, who is back at River Plate, and Diego Gomez joined Premier League side Brighton and Hove Albion.
Lionel Messi had their only goal in leg one of their CONCACAF Champions Cup tie with Sporting Kansas City on Wednesday as they earned a 1-0 triumph, with Oscar Ustari making three stops for the clean sheet.
On the New York City FC side, there was not a lot of activity in terms of guys coming in, with the club signing Greg Ranjitsingh while they re-signed Maxi Moralez.
They traded Luis Barraza to DC United, let Jovan Mijatovic sign with Oud-Heverlee Leuven, while James Sands joined Bundesliga side FC St. Pauli and Christian McFarlane was sold to Manchester City.
Alonso Martinez was their breakout star in 2024, with the Costan Rican scoring 17 goals in the regular-season, while Santiago Rodriguez was once again their main provider, leading them with 10 assists.
Inter Miami possible starting lineup:
Callender; Weigandt, Fray, D. Martinez, Alba; Allende, Cremaschi, Busquets, Redondo; Messi, Suarez
New York City FC possible starting lineup:
Freese; Gray, Martins, Risa, O'Toole; Perea, Parks; Wolf, Rodriguez, Ojeda; A. Martinez
We say: Inter Miami 3-1 New York City FC
Miami are used to quick turnaround games, like they will experience on Saturday, and we expect them to put forth a determined effort and make a statement to start the regular season.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Joel Lefevre
